Radio Taiwan International
Date: 18 July, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

President Tsai Ing-wen has arrived in the allied Caribbean nation of St. Lucia.

After her arrival Wednesday, Tsai traveled to the south of the country to witness the groundbreaking ceremony for a hospital being rebuilt with a Taiwanese loan.

The St. Jude hospital was an important source of medical care for residents of southern St. Lucia before it was destroyed by a fire in 2009.

During remarks at the groundbreaking, Tsai said that under the leadership of St. Lucia’s current prime minister, bilateral cooperation projects have been moving ahead. She said that exchanges in the medical field have been especially frequent and intensive.    [FULL  STORY]

Comparing the Hong Kong case to Taiwan’s situation is a bit of a stretch—some might even call it nonsense.

The National Interest
Date: July 17, 2019
By: Dennis V. Hickey

In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, to protest against a controversial extradition bill cobbled together by Hong Kong authorities with the support of Beijing. Much ink has been spilled trying to explain the significance of the demonstrations. Some analyses are solid efforts that contribute to the conversation. Others are not—particularly those that somehow try to link the Hong Kong experience to Taiwan. Taiwan is not Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong was a British colony for over a century—it consisted of territories stolen from imperial China at different times during the nineteenth century (Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories). It was never a sovereign, independent state. The colony’s governor was selected by London—he was never elected by the people and Hong Kong was never a democracy. Moreover, the Hong Kong people had little or no say in determining the terms of the “handover” to mainland China in 1997. Since 1997, this SAR has been intended to serve as a show piece for Beijing’s “one country, two systems” reunification formula. The scheme was also applied in Macau, a former Portuguese colony. It has received mixed reviews in both SARS.

The Republic of China (Taiwan’s official moniker) was formally established on January 1, 1912. Since that time, its territory and political system has changed dramatically. For example, during World War II, the central government moved from Nanjing to Chongqing. During the Chinese Civil War, the government was compelled to move several times before finally landing in Taipei in 1949. For seventy years, the government in Taipei has controlled Taiwan, a handful of small islands such as Kinmen and Matsu (widely acknowledged as part of Fujian province) and the best piece of real estate in the South China Sea (Taiping Island). For almost a quarter of a century, Taipei occupied the Chinese seat in the UN’s Security Council and was recognized by most governments as the legitimate government of all China. And like the United States and many other countries, the governmental system has changed dramatically in recent decades. Taiwan has transformed itself from a staid, authoritarian dictatorship into a boisterous, multi-party democracy. Despite numerous challenges and triumphs, the Republic of China on Taiwan remains a sovereign and independent state. Hence, the differences with Hong Kong are enormous and striking—a fact which led Ma Ying-jeou, then Taiwan’s president, to declare in 2014 that Hong Kong’s experience with the “one country, two systems” model is “completely irrelevant” to Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Contractor will have to replace Hikvision cameras within one week

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taichung City Government said Thursday (July 18) it would replace surveillance cameras in underground passageways within a week after members of the public pointed out they were made in China.

Taiwan has been increasingly wary of Chinese technology, as most of the world suspects close cooperation between Chinese information technology firms, such as Huawei, and the communist government.

In Taichung, residents called two members of the City Council to tell them they had found surveillance cameras in underpasses at five intersections on Taiwan Boulevard to be products of Hikvision or Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (海康威視), a state-controlled company which is reportedly the world’s largest supplier of surveillance equipment.

The cameras had been installed in Taichung by the city government’s construction department from 2017 until last month, the Central News Agency reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/18
By: By Matt Yu, Wang Cheng-chung and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, July 18 (CNA) Newly appointed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Deputy Secretary-General

Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) on Thursday said the nation's top priority should be preventing opposition Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) from winning the presidency next year.

"Our goal should be to create a 'Han-free homeland,'" Lin told the host during a radio interview Thursday morning.

Should the China-friendly Kaohsiung mayor win the presidency, Taiwan will move closer to the totalitarian government of China, Lin warned.

Also, all the major reforms introduced under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), including the push for marriage equality, transitional justice and a nuclear-free homeland, will likely be reversed by the KMT candidate if he wins the presidency, Lin claimed.    [FULL  STORY]

AMALGAMATION: Officials said that the goal is to form a top Asian university in three to five years that would have more than 1,200 lecturers and 32,000 students

Taiei Times
Date: Jul 19, 2019
By: Lo Hsin-chen  /  Staff reporter

Officials at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), National Pingtung

University of Science and Technology (NPUST) and National Yunlin University of Science and Technology yesterday said that they would promote a merger of the three.

If successful, it would be the largest higher-education merger in Taiwan’s history.

The new institute would have more than 1,200 lecturers and 32,000 students, the universities said.

While they have yet set a timetable for the merger, they said that they hope to have plans approved at university council meetings by the end of this year.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 July, 2019
By: Jake Chen

Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung says the government will help develop internet technologies and foster talent in the internet tech field.

The transportation ministry invited top academics and officials in the tech field to take part in a forum on Wednesday. The goal, the ministry said, was to promote the exchange of ideas in order to help push the industry forward.    [FULL  STORY]

AEI
Date: July 17, 2019
By: Michael MazzaAsia, Foreign and Defense Policy

In a June 17 story about a supposed split over Taiwan arms sales within the Trump administration, the Wall Street Journal reported, “It took some convincing, but Mr. Trump came around … and he now sees the value in using Taiwan as a bargaining chip in his talks with China.” It was a devastating sentence for Taiwan’s leaders and for supporters of the US-Taiwan relationship to read. Taipei has been worried about being conceived of as a “bargaining chip” since the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency, when he backed off his earlier questioning of the “one China policy” and instead committed to it in order, ostensibly, to secure a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Early excitement following President Tsai Ing-wen’s own congratulatory phone call with President-elect Trump quickly shifted to a feeling of nervousness and potential foreboding.

Nerves calmed as worst fears did not come to fruition, with a number of Taiwan-friendly officials taking positions at the National Security Council, State Department, and Defense Department, with the president signing bills designed to improve US-Taiwan relations, and with the administration seeming to move to a regular arms sales process. Over the past two years, senior administration officials including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, former Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver have spoken publicly about Taiwan in positive terms. Indeed, it has become common to describe US-Taiwan relations as the best they have been in many years, perhaps since the severing of formal relations in 1979. Yet concerns have lingered about the president’s own views of the island, which remain unclear.

The Wall Street Journal story dropped with US-China trade negotiations in a prolonged stalemate. The G20 summit was approaching and Xi Jinping had not yet agreed to a sidelines sit-down with President Trump in Osaka. According to the Journal, there were growing concerns within the administration that Xi might use the potential sale of new tanks and other arms “as one more excuse not to meet.” The real concern, of course, was not that President Trump would trade an arms sale for a meeting, but that he would do so as part of a trade deal. Although the G20 seemed unlikely to significantly affect Taiwan’s status in Washington, the possibility could not be ruled out.
[FULL  STORY]

The Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s “Taiwan on 2 Wheels” portal provides maps, routes, plus scenic and rest spots along the legendary Cycling Route No. 1

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/17
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s East Rift Valley National Scenic Area has posted a message on its website introducing the “Taiwan on 2 Wheels” website, a portal for cycling largely dedicated to Cycling Route No. 1, which circumnavigates the country.

“Driving is too fast, walking is too slow; change your speed and perspective at a speed of 20 kph on a bicycle so you can experience the natural beauty of Taiwan,” the introduction to the website says.

“If you want a great way to challenge your body and mind, and to experience the true beauty of Taiwan’s mountains and the friendliness of its people, you could make no better choice than to ride your bike around the island.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/17
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Mitchell Silk, acting assistant secretary for international markets at the U.S. Treasury Department, was due to arrive in Taiwan Wednesday for a two-day visit to foster cooperation on energy and infrastructure between the U.S. and Taiwan.

Silk will propose ideas for developing domestic and regional energy and infrastructure markets as part of the Indo-Pacific vision's Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) initiative and the Infrastructure Transaction and Assistance Network (ITAN), the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced in a press statement.

Asia EDGE is a whole-of-government initiative designed to strengthen energy security and promote energy access across the Indo-Pacific region, while ITAN is aimed at improving partner countries' project planning and management capacity, according to the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

"This will be Mr. Silk's first visit to Taiwan in his capacity as acting assistant secretary," the AIT said, adding that he will be accompanied by David Gottfried, deputy director of the Office of Investment, Energy and Infrastructure in the International Affairs division of the U.S. Treasury.
[FULL  STORY]